The incident further undermined efforts to repair the country's damaged tourism industry, coming a day after a Cairo hotel hosting Israeli tourists came under attack by men who hurled fireworks and fired birdshot.

The Islamic State group claimed that attack, which it said targeted "Jewish" tourists.

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Police said they were Arab Israelis, and that the assailants had targeted policemen guarding the hotel and not them.

The jihadist group's Egyptian affiliate is waging an insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula, and dealt a body blow to the country's tourism industry by claiming to have downed a Russian airliner in October, killing all those on board.